


I'll Be Home For Christmas

by Banshi13



Series: Maluhia [5]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, First Christmas, Fluff and Humor, Humor, M/M, soft romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:41:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28080102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Banshi13/pseuds/Banshi13
Summary: Steve.  Danny.  Their first Christmas together.Together, together.
Relationships: Steve McGarrett & Danny "Danno" Williams, Steve McGarrett/Danny "Danno" Williams
Series: Maluhia [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1760446
Comments: 31
Kudos: 112





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> _Disclaimer: Hawaii Five-0 and the characters found within the series are owned by CBS Productions, K/O Paper Products, and 101st Street Productions. No profit is being made off of this work._

**Hawaii Five-0**

“I don’t even get why we’re doing this, Danny,” Steve secured another section of lights to Danny’s roof and looked down at its owner, who was currently holding a long section of Christmas twinkle lights in his hand and feeding them up to Steve while staring serenely up at him with clear blue eyes and a perfectly content look on his face, as if decorating two houses for Christmas was what everybody did and should be the life goal of everyone on Earth.

“Well, Steven, in case you weren’t listening the first hundred times I explained it to you, I will be magnanimous and attempt it once more for the one hundredth and first time,” Danny’s voice couldn’t have sounded more irritatingly calm and Steve had to admit quietly to himself that most of the reason he’d brought up the subject again was to ruffle Danny’s feathers. He grinned and looked down the ladder at him.

“That’d be really nice of you, buddy, thanks.”

“Because,” Danny rolled his eyes, feeding Steve more light line, “I still live here, and my son still lives here – half the time, anyways, – and as long as my name is on the deed to this house, there will be Christmas decorations donning the roof and windows, and a Christmas tree in the living room. This is the way the Williamses do Christmas; never have we ever owned a dwelling and not decorated said dwelling for Christmas. That is a crime where we come from.”

“Yeah, but you practically live with me now, Danny. You’re hardly ever here.” Steve stretched the last few inches to secure the final section of warm, golden lighting and straightened himself out before carefully climbing back down the ladder. “And we still need to decorate my place too, remember?"

"And we will," Danny's sunny answer greeted Steve as his sneakered feet hit the ground and he brushed the dirt and twigs off himself that had followed its way down.

"But?"

"But now, we're going to find a Christmas tree for my living room."

"I know a place -"

Danny's finger went up so quickly Steve almost jumped back from it, eyes crossing as the tip of the digit homed in on its target, which appeared to be Steve’s undivided attention. "Legally this time, Steven. Legally."

**Hawaii Five-0**

In the end, they headed back to Steve’s to grab his truck and wound up getting not only a tree for Danny’s place, but for Steve’s as well. It was pretty helpful to have a macho, gas guzzling, overcompensating amalgamation of steel that just so happened to have the ability to haul several things all at once. Well, so said Steve. Danny just rolled his eyes and bobbed his head along with everything Steve said just to make him feel better, because Danny knew, he knew where this day was leading, where the conversation from earlier was heading. It was going where all their talks went that had to do with replicating doing something at Danny’s house that could just as easily be done at Steve’s. 

Steve had been trying to convince Danny to move in with him for the better part of two months, and Danny hadn’t forgotten about the bet Steve had made with him during their vacation to Kailua. But Steve had really gone all in as of late, trying to persuade Danny into selling his place and moving in with him. It had all started a few days before Halloween, where Steve had not-so-subtly hinted that his place was perfect for a kid (Charlie) to host a Halloween party for his entire class, and how all the kids could have a Halloween scavenger hunt for extra candy before their parents came to pick them up and take them on their own Trick-or-Treating routes. “My neighborhood’s pretty good when it comes to candy, too, Danny – hey, the little lady down the street? She hands out whole candy bars, the big ones. Adult size.”

Steve had been convincing enough on the candy selection available in his neck of the woods, so instead of Trick-or-Treating in Danny’s hub, Steve, Danny, and Charlie had canvassed up and down the streets near Steve’s house. Even Danny had to admit that Charlie had walked away with a pretty nice haul, including the full sized, adult candy bars from Steve’s elder neighbor as promised. Ever since, Steve had brought up the benefits of Danny and Charlie moving into his place whenever and wherever he could:

“It’s closer to Charlie’s school.”

“Hey – you’d already be here for Thanksgiving! No need to lug food around, since it’d already be here.”

(Steve had used the same argument for Christmas, only substituting presents in for food.)

“It’s closer to Rachel’s place.”

“Hey, if Mark actually wins the governor’s race, I’d feel a lot better if we were all under one roof, you know?”

And so it had gone, through Veterans’ Day and Thanksgiving, leading up to Pearl Harbor Day and right up to this morning. Danny hummed quietly to himself as Steve turned his truck into the driveway and came to a stop in front of the fence.

“What.”

Danny should’ve known Steve’s bat-like ears would hear him. “Nothing,” he answered, unbuckling his seat belt and opening the door on his side, “just thinking we can string some lights up through your trellis.”

Steve blinked, slowly. “If that’s a come on, it needs a little work.”

“You’re hilarious,” Danny snickered, unlatching the tailgate, and reaching in to tug out the very fragrant Frasier Fur they’d managed to find. Yes, they’d found it three hours and one hundred and fifty dollars later, but it was a live tree and there was no risk of Pua or anyone else from HPD knocking on their door this year to tell them that they owed the good State of Hawaii twelve hundred dollars because they’d sawed down and absconded from a protected forest preserve with precious vegetation in tow. Danny was reminded of a line out of the movie _Moonstruck_ – “It costs money. It costs money because it _saves_ money!” And sure the character saying that was a plumber trying to con a couple into purchasing more expensive pipes for their bathroom, but for this situation, the line fit perfectly.

Together, they lugged the tree into the house, even getting an assist from Eddie once they crossed the threshold. The dog was more interested in sniffing it from trunk to crown, and once it was snuggly ensconced in the tree stand, Eddie settled himself down underneath it, continuing to explore the branches. Danny shook his head at him. “Look, buddy, if you’re thinking you’re gonna climb up this thing, you’ve got another thing coming.” Eddie pulled his nose out and offered half a sneeze in response as Steve came up behind him, a bundle of green corded twinkle lights in his hands and a grin in his eyes. Danny looked from Steve to the lights and back to Steve again.

“You’re gonna put them on now?”

“Yeah, why not?”

“Well, because this is a live tree, babe,” Danny flourished a hand towards their – Steve’s – tree. “The branches have to fall, remember?”

The pout, the absolute crestfallen look that swam over Steve’s face reminded Danny of when he’d told Charlie that, no, he couldn’t have the awesome new Nerf gun set because he had twenty other awesome Nerf gun sets that he hardly played with anymore. But Steve wasn’t a kid, and he wasn’t in a store begging to buy a toy. “But, uh… you know, if you put the lights on now, it probably won’t make much difference,” Danny soothed. “Just make sure to push them a little further back so they don’t drop off the branches.”

That seemed to placate Steve enough, and Danny did not miss the little smirk of triumph his partner wore as he started to loop and attach the lights from the top of the tree and down around the green, prickly body. Yes, Danny knew he’d been played, but that was okay; Danny had tricks of his own he could use when he wanted to get his way. He stepped back and watched as Steve slowly made his way around the tree, stepping over Eddie who had yet to move from his chosen spot on the floor, and it wasn’t long before Steve was making his final pass around the tree and plugging the lights into the outlet strategically positioned behind it.

“See? Perfect,” Steve stepped back, crossing his arms over his chest and bumping his side gently against Danny’s. “You know, you should get some ornaments to put on the tree, too. You and Charlie and Grace.”

The corner of Danny’s mouth went up. Steve wasn’t subtle, but for humor’s sake, Danny played along, as if he didn’t know exactly where this suggestion was leading. “Oh yeah? I think the kids already have a couple here.”

“Yeah, but you can never have too many, you know?”

Danny personally agreed with that sentiment, but he wasn’t about to tell Steve that, not yet. He was going to enjoy stringing Steve along on this one. “Babe, you have three huge boxes upstairs of ornaments and decorations that we still have to bring down here,” he pointed out, literally directing a finger above them towards the attic, logic patiently lacing his tone. “You’ve got plenty there to decorate ten trees.”

“Yeah, maybe but a lot of that stuff is old,” Steve reasoned, rocking back and forth on his heels a bit. “It’s time to update a little bit.”

“Update?”

“Yeah. I’ll go through all the ornaments, keep the sentimental stuff, and then, I don’t know,” Steve shrugged, “maybe give the ones I don’t want away to a charity or a church or something. Anyways, I’ll need new ornaments. You and the kids should pick some out.”

Danny hummed, considering, feeling Steve’s eyes on him as he deliberately took his time answering. “We could bring some of the ornaments we’re not using this year over and put them on the tree?” He offered. He looked over then, seeing Steve nod agreeably and then, just to be contrary, Danny added, “and then take them back over to my place once we take the tree down.”

Steve stuck his lip out in a determined pout. “Or you could just leave them over here? Or buy ones to leave over here?”

“Yeah, maybe, I dunno. On another note, we need to think about food; I’m hungry.” Danny pushed back against him gently before buoying off and heading for the kitchen, leaving Steve to stew and congratulating himself on extricating his way out of yet another conversation designed to get him to consider moving in with Steve. It was good for Steve, Danny knew, for someone to pull the reigns back every now and then, or to bop and weave around the subject and leave it for another day. Besides, it wasn’t as if Danny had outright told Steve ‘no’. He just hadn’t said ‘yes’. As Danny poked around for something to put together for dinner, he heard Steve head up the stairs and a few minutes later, his partner popped his head into the kitchen only long enough to let Danny know that he was going swimming.

Steve’s reactions to certain things were predictable. Danny knew this after ten years. Steve hated it when his plans didn’t hit the mental benchmarks he’d laid out, and Danny knew he was purposely throwing wrenches into Steve’s idea of them moving in together by either pushing off the conversation or side stepping the topic like he’d just done in the living room by controlling the discussion and not even allowing Steve to offer up Danny and Charlie moving in with him as a possibility. As a result, Steve was stroking through the Pacific now trying to regroup, to come up with other ways to get Danny to see sense, and Danny knew his partner was reaching the point where Steve was going to start thinking there might be other reasons Danny didn’t want to live with him.

He peeked out the kitchen window and saw Steve cutting through the water at a faster-than-normal clip, working out his frustration in solitude. Danny actually felt a little badly for that; for all the casual conversation and hint dropping Steve had been doing, Danny knew that he and Charlie moving in was something Steve wanted very badly, especially with everything else going on in his life at the moment. Family had never come easily to Steve. It was the one thing that he wanted, yet had always seemed to escape him, at least until recently. He wanted to make it official. Danny understood that, loved him even more for it.

“Patience, babe,” Danny murmured, as if Steve could hear him across the sand and through the choppy waves that swallowed him up.

If anything, Steve only seemed to move through the water faster. Danny smiled to himself and went back to figuring out dinner.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Drowning in sweet and sappy. Grab your arm floaties and jump in!
> 
> _Disclaimer: Hawaii Five-0 and the characters found within the series are owned by CBS Productions, K/O Paper Products, and 101st Street Productions. No profit is being made off of this work._

**Hawaii Five-0**

Christmas at Steve’s had been long and loud, with plenty of presents and food to share and spread around. Other than the upstairs, there hadn’t been a single section of Steve’s house that hadn’t had a person or an animal or a toy rolling on it for hours on end. They had Christmas dinner on the beach with everyone stretched out, whether it was at the table, the long chairs, or even the grass. Steve and Adam managed to drag a few who polished off their food early into a light scrimmage of football and by the time the game was over, Charlie was curled up on one of the beach chairs fast asleep with Eddie sacked out beside him, both child and dog snorting softly away. One by one, the party dwindled until Steve waved Junior off with Tani and said goodnight to Lou and Renee, the foursome leaving together while Steve kept a watchful eye until they were in their cars driving away.

Danny came up behind him as Steve closed the door, Charlie tucked tightly into his arms, still asleep.

“Man, he’s out,” Steve grinned, peering at Charlie cautiously, as if looking at him too hard would instantly flip some internal ‘must be awake’ switch in the kid and he’d suddenly regain consciousness. 

“No kidding. Way too much food for that little stomach of his, though by the way he scarfed it down, you’d think he never ate,” Danny nodded for Steve to follow them up. “Usually, I’d make him brush his teeth, but if I wake him up now he’ll be up till midnight.” 

They got Charlie situated, Steve helping Danny to at least change the kid into pajamas and not leave him to sleep in the jeans and shirt he’d been wearing. Danny watched as Steve dropped a soft kiss and a ‘goodnight’ onto Charlie’s forehead. “Cleaning up this other room came in handy,” he murmured as Steve walked up to him. “Yep. Once Junior moves out, the other one will too.” Steve padded downstairs and Danny tagged along behind, settling himself on the couch next to Steve. An irritated huff came from his left, and Danny lifted an apologetic hand at Eddie, who was looking at him with a very accusatory glare at having been disturbed. “Sorry! Jeez…”

“I told you this was his couch,” Steve snickered, leaning forward and grabbing the remote for the television. 

“Yeah? What about you? I’m not the only one sitting on this couch, you know, you’re right here next to me.”

“Eddie’s my dog,” Steve shrugged. “I get privileges.”

“You get privileges,” Danny muttered, leaning into Steve’s side just a bit as his partner wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “I get growled at, and you get privileges.”

Steve rolled his eyes. “He did not _growl_ at you.”

“He didn’t – are you deaf? Do we need to make an appointment to get your ears checked?”

Keen to avoid Danny going off on a tangent, Steve inched into Danny’s space, intent written all over his face. “I can give you privileges later, if you want,” Steve murmured into his ear, his lips so close that Danny didn’t even have to look to know the goof was grinning, like he’d thought of something clever.

“Animal.”

Steve laughed into his hair while Danny tugged the remote from his grip. “ _Home Alone_ is on.”

“Are you joking? We watched that last night wrapping the rest of the presents, Danny.”

“It’s a timeless Christmas movie, Steven,” Danny leaned away from him and tucked the remote into the cushions on the other side of the couch. And that was that. They were watching _Home Alone_ , at least the first one, and possibly the second one if they were both still awake for it.

Which they were. Two hours and some change later and the credits were rolling, the glare from the TV pushing against the soft glow of the lights from the Christmas tree and the green holly trim Steve had wrapped around the stairs and at the top of the landing, with more lights strung throughout. It was warm, nice, cozy in a way that Danny hadn’t felt in a long time. Perfect even, especially for what the next few minutes would bring.

“I forgot, I have another present for you.”

Steve lifted his head (he’d manfully leaned it back against the couch and may have dozed off and on during the movie) and blinked his eyes, finally looking down at Danny. “Another one? Danny, you already got me enough-“

“It’s just one more, I promise. Didn’t cost hardly anything,” Danny tapped Steve on the knee and regretfully pushed himself out of his warm cocoon, willing himself up the stairs and into Steve’s room, the faster to get back downstairs.

Steve’s room that Danny now shared with him when he spent the night. If he was being honest, it was one of Danny’s favorite things about being in a relationship again; sharing a bed, knowing that someone he loved very much was laying next to him, and that that someone was just as devoted to him. He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed that until he’d spent the night at Steve’s house after bro-cation to Kailua and woke up the next morning with Steve still sleeping next to him, breathing deep and even and tucked close against Danny’s side. The fact that it was _Steve_ and not, well, a woman, had been dealt with long ago. Ten years ago, he’d have had someone drawn and quartered for suggesting that he would willingly commit himself romantically to an insane, adrenaline addicted, ask-no-questions-or-permission, it’s-only-a-good-day-if-I-blew-something-up neanderthal Steven J. McGarrett. Now, he’d just as soon as shoot someone for telling him he was crazy for doing just that.

Finding Steve’s last present in the little nook he’d used to hide it, Danny picked it up and forced himself to casually walk back down the stairs, knowing that if he hurried or seemed excited in any miniscule way that Steve would pick up on it and demand to know what was going on. So, he hit the bottom of the steps and held out the gift with merely a, “here you go” as he sat back down and grabbed for the remote, as if this were just another gift, one so meaningless that the television was far more interesting to watch than Steve opening the gift. Steve was inspecting the package as if it might hold an explosive device that he may have to deactivate. Danny rolled his eyes and nudged him with his elbow. “Would you just open it? Huh? Please?”

“Alright, okay, fine, just – stop with the bony elbows,” Steve muttered, tearing into the paper and pulling what looked like some kind of picture frame out and turning it over in his hand. Danny held his breath and Steve stopped. Just stopped, completely and totally, frozen as he stared at the photo nestled in a simple black frame.

“You’ve been bugging me for months for it,” Danny offered a few seconds later when Steve didn’t say anything. “Figured now was as good a time as any.”

“Danny,” Steve choked out, his fingers running over the picture, a picture of Danny, Grace, and Charlie, standing in front of his house holding a large poster board decorated with glitter and drawings of Christmas trees, ornaments, and snowflakes along with rainbows, palm trees, even a large, blue anchor with a happy, clapping seal leaning against it that read, ‘ _We’ll be HOME for Christmas!_ ’.

Danny leaned into his partner’s side, slipping an arm around Steve’s waist and resting his chin on his partner’s shoulder. “I talked to Charlie about it a couple weeks ago. I owe him a hundred bucks for keeping his mouth shut about it, not blurting it out to you.” Steve laughed, still staring at the photo.

“You remember that day when Grace was over, and you had to run out to the store for something? We’d already made the poster so all we had to do was take the picture.”

Watching Steve’s mind work was like watching the insides of a clock spin and click together, cogs and gears whirring and shifting perfectly to deliver accuracy every second. His brow furrowed, and he sucked his bottom lip in between his teeth for a few moments (which Danny had learned was a pretty big turn on for him, for whatever reason). “Who took the picture?” Steve murmured softly.

“Junior,” Danny answered. “Me, the kids, and Junior. We’re the only ones who knew – well, Rachel, of course but, you know. She kinda has to know where her kid is gonna be living.”

“You sure?” Steve asked, turning his face, his nose brushing against Danny’s. “About everything, you know? You’re sure you want to do this?”

Danny dropped a kiss on Steve’s clothed shoulder. “I’m sure. I’ve thought about it for a while. Yeah, there’ll be adjustments and stuff, but that’s half the fun, right?” He looked up, catching Steve’s earnest gaze and felt his heart clench at the sight. “I love you, babe. I think you and me… we’ve waited long enough to have the life we want, right?”

“Yeah,” Steve breathed, tight and emotional as he tucked himself against Danny, hiding his face in Danny’s neck for a few moments. “Thank you, Danny. This is – I love you, Danno. So much.” He pulled back, pressing a long kiss to Danny’s mouth. Danny leaned back against the couch cushions, pulling Steve with him and opening his mouth, letting Steve take over, at least until an annoyed rumbling grumbled its way into Danny’s ears from the corner of the couch. Danny froze, his eyes opening and looking into Steve’s, whose own hazel orbs were just as confusedly crinkled in the low, Christmas night light. They both turned their heads at the same time, lips peeling away from each other, to see Eddie staring back at them. He offered a harsh puff of air from his nose before flopping back down, emitting another put-upon groan.

“Looks like you’ve maxed out your privileges,” Danny murmured as Steve looked back at him, adorably perplexed at the entire thing. 

“Yeah,” he muttered, wonder lacing his tone and Danny couldn’t help but laugh softly. Steve McGarrett was wrapped around Eddie’s paw spectacularly, and it showed. If he was deterred though, it wasn’t for long. A sly grin slipped across Steve’s lips as he pressed another kiss to Danny’s mouth. “I have privileges upstairs,” he whispered.

“Oh?” Danny grinned, kissing him back slowly. “What kind of privileges?”

“Bed privileges,” Steve slid a hand up Danny’s stomach, his fingers trailing a line until the palm was resting on Danny’s chest, right over his heart and where he’d been shot earlier in the year. Danny watched as Steve’s brown head tilted downward to lay a kiss just over the healed wound.

“Bed privileges,” Danny sighed, his own hand moving to cup the back of Steve’s neck. “Our bed privileges?”

“Yeah, Danny,” Steve’s eyes were practically shining, and Danny knew it wasn’t from the gentle glare of the Christmas lights. “Our bed. Our house. Ours.” Danny pushed up just a bit and Steve took the hint, getting to his feet and steadying his partner as Danny stood and took his hand. In the other, Steve clutched the picture frame tightly. Danny knew exactly where Steve would put it, too; right on the side table next to his – _their_ – bed.

“Yep, ours. Although,” Danny inched his way out between the couch and the coffee table as Steve tugged him towards the stairs. “Now that I’m gonna be living here, I feel I need to point out a couple of minor changes that should be made, you know, just little improvements here and there.” Danny didn’t have to be looking at Steve to hear the smile in his response.

“Wouldn’t have it any other way, Danno.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh, Christmas with the boys. Wouldn’t have it any other way. AND, another part to my Maluhia series; yay!
> 
> This was loosely inspired by an idea Elizabeth37 on Twitter gave me. While it wasn’t really close to the plot idea she offered, it did get the gears turning in my head so to speak, and so I credit her for that!
> 
> Yes, if you haven’t watched _Moonstruck_ with Nicholas Cage, Cher, and Olympia Dukakis, I highly, highly recommend you do so. I’m not so much a fan of Cher anymore (I think she’s truly gone off the deep end on some things) but! her work in that movie is absolutely superb and it’s a flick that can be enjoyed by anyone sixteen years old and up, as well as appreciated and understood.
> 
> Yes, I also have an unhealthy obsession with _Home Alone_ and _Home Alone 2_ , as well as Christmas and winter all together. I’ve watched _Home Alone_ every night this week. It’s 2020; no regrets.
> 
> There might be some lines in this fic that struck you as odd while reading. I’m not going to point out what they are. If they struck you as strange, out nowhere, oddly placed, good – LET THEM. There’s a good five months or so between this fic and Part 3: ‘ _Dinner and a Show_ ’, and let’s just say I have plans to fill that space. :D
> 
> Merry Christmas!

**Author's Note:**

> What is Danny planning, I wonder....
> 
> Chapter Two will be up soon!


End file.
